BSP MLA,others visited Gupta before his death,wife tells court

The PWD engineer was allegedly murdered by Tiwari and others on December 23 last year. Shashi told the court that the accused had visited their residence in the Gail Vihar Colony on December 21. According to Shashi,Gupta had confided to her what the MLA and others told him. He had also told her that he was “under pressure” because they could go to “any extent”.

The next day — December 22 — Gupta had told everything to his mother Kiran Bala over the telephone. In fact,Gupta told her that he apprehended a murderous attack on him from Tiwari and his goons.

“He told his mother that he was thinking of getting himself transferred,rather than succumbing to pressure,” Shashi told the court.

Special prosecution counsel I B Singh said that according to Shashi,on the night of the murder,there was a power failure in the Gail Vihar Colony,which was unusual as the colony was known for uninterrupted power supply. Shashi told the court that she suspected the blackout to be the handiwork of the accused.

She also brought to the notice of the court certain anomalies in the map of the colony and her residence,as given in the case diary of the police. “The investigating officer,it appears,failed to draw the exact position of the rooms in the house where Gupta was killed. The witness elaborated on the exact location of different rooms,walls and windows before the court,” said Singh. The recording of Shashi’s statement will continue on Friday.

Meanwhile,the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court deferred the hearing on the bail application filed by Hoshiar Singh — former station officer of Dibiyapur police station and one of the 11 accused in the case — for a week.

The Allahabad High Court also directed the Centre and the state government on Thursday to file their reply to the writ petitions filed by three accused in the Gupta murder case,wherein they have challenged their detention under the National Security Act. The petitions have been filed by Vinay Tiwari,Putti alias Ram Babu and Manoj Awasthi.